Youthful image put Chicago ahead in Nobel race

Pairing peace laureates with students netted city the summit, experts say

April 23, 2012|By Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune reporter

Michael Amoah, 18, a senior at Lincoln Park High School, participates in a video exchange with Ghanaian students Wednesday. Efforts by Chicago schools to connect with students worldwide helped the city net this week's World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, experts say. (José M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

The conversation began with a simple question from one teenager to another.

"What kind of music do you listen to?" 17-year-old Amanda Ramirez asked, leaning toward a webcam beaming images from her classroom at Chicago's Lincoln Park High School to students in Accra, Ghana. "Do you know about Rihanna, Drake or Jay-Z?"

The answer coming from Africa seemed to surprise the American students.

"We listen to everything you listen to on the radio and the Internet," said Mimi Forson, a high school senior. "We also dress the same way you do. But we don't have a Wal-Mart."

As the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates gets under way in Chicago on Monday, some of the world's most distinguished human rights advocates will turn their attention toward bridging the cultural gaps between young people across the globe. The video exchanges that took place last week between Chicago students and their peers on other continents were the first of what summit organizers hope will become ongoing conversations among youths about humanity, nonviolence and peace.

The talks between these teenagers started at the simplest level but quickly escalated to issues they deal with the daily, such as bullying, discrimination, senseless shootings and gang violence. They shared their thoughts about homosexuality and tried to dispel misperceptions that each held about the other — that American kids were spoiled and ungrateful and those in Africa were uneducated and deprived.

When they moved beyond the stereotypes, they explored possibilities. What if they formed a coalition of young people, someone asked, to rally against the human rights atrocities in Syria? Or could they somehow join together, another student suggested, and stand against human trafficking?

It was exactly the kind of discussion the Nobel laureates gathering for their 12th annual meeting wanted to take place among the young Chicagoans they will meet face to face this week. In addition to daily workshops on topics ranging from the challenges of peace to how one person can make a difference, the laureates will visit 17 public schools throughout the city. For months, the students have been studying a curriculum that focuses on the work of Nobel peace laureates.

This interaction between the students and the laureates, as well as the focus on connecting students worldwide, is what pushed Chicago ahead of other cities that sought to host the summit.

"There was a serious commitment on our part to framing the summit to be about youth," said Terry Mazany, president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust and co-chairman of the Chicago host committee. "The public schools pitch was unique because we were able to connect Chicago students directly with these extraordinary individuals and world leaders."

Over the past decade, Chicago has emerged as a global city with the ability to attract international business and trade. The city has consistently ranked among the top 10 but remains in the second tier behind the big contenders such as New York, London and Tokyo.

According to Mazany, who was interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools when the bid for the laureates summit was made early last year, the effort was part of a strategy that began with former Mayor Richard Daley and continued under Mayor Rahm Emanuel to boost Chicago's international image.

The three-day event will bring high-profile laureates and other dignitaries to the city, including the Dalai Lama and former world leaders Jimmy Carter, Frederik Willem de Klerk of South Africa, Lech Walesa of Poland, Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union. The daylong public sessions held at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum, as well as an opening night dinner where former President Bill Clinton will give the keynote address, already have sold out.

The laureates summit — the first in North America — comes just weeks before Chicago hosts the NATO summit in May, a two-day event that will attract thousands of visitors and dignitaries and place the city in the international spotlight. Chicago also had been selected to host the G-8 economic summit in May, but President Barack Obama moved it to Camp David because of security concerns.

In a report issued last week, McKinsey Global Institute, an international business and economic research group, listed Chicago as one of the U.S. "middleweight" cities that will be a driving force behind the global economy over the next decade. According to the institute, cities such as Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington are expected to generate more than 10 percent of gross domestic product growth in the next 15 years, outpacing urban areas in China and Europe.